Beastie Boys' Adam 'MCA' Yauch dies

Why it matters

Adam Yauch, who recorded as MCA in the Beastie Boys, died on May 4, 2012, of salivary gland cancer. He was 47. He had been diagnosed in 2009. The illness was, in a quiet way, the spine of the last three years of Beastie Boys activity: the Hot Sauce Committee Part Two album in 2011 was finished while he was in treatment; the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in April 2012 happened twenty-one days before his death. Yauch was, in addition to being the bass player and one of the three voices, the conceptual leader of the group from Ill Communication forward. He was the one who pulled the Beasties toward live-instrument funk and away from the all-sample collage of Paul's Boutique. He founded the Milarepa Fund and organized the Tibetan Freedom Concerts in the mid-90s. He directed most of the group's videos under the alias Nathaniel Hörnblowér. He was Brooklyn-born, lived there his whole life, and is buried there. The Beastie Boys did not record again as Beastie Boys after he died; Mike D and Ad-Rock have made it clear there is no version of the group without him. You can hear the loss every time you put on a Beasties record from 2012 onward, which is to say: you can hear it every time.